Knitted fabric and method of making the same



Patented Dec. 27, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFI CE KNITTED FABRIC ANDMETHOD OF MAKING THE SAME

Robert H. Lawson, Pawtucket, and Arthur N.

Cloutier, Lonsdale, R. 1., assignors to Hemphill Company, Central Falls,R. I., a corporation of Massachusetts Application June 18, 1936, SerialNo. 85,944

12 Claims.

' effected in various ways, but it is an object of this case to setforth a form of transfer which will be strong,.pleasing in appearanceand which may be knitted on a dial and cylinder knitting machine withoutresorting to special transferring instrumentalities such as have beenemployed previously. It is a further object of the invention to knit afabric having the same number of Wales in the rib part as it has in thecontinuing plain part and to'transfer the loops of discontinued ribwales to plain wales which are to be knitted in continuation of the ribwales which have been dropped.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 shows a section of fabric in a conventional illustration,comprising a section of rib fabric, plain fabric and the transferbetween the two;

Fig. 2 shows this same fabric about as it would appear after it had beenremoved from the machine;

Fig. 3 shows a section of fabric, conventionally Fig. 4 isa view of thefabric illustrated in Fig. 3 about as it would actually appear magnifiedto a considerable extent. It has long been desired to knit sections ofrib fabric and to transfer to plain fabric having the same number ofwales, on knitting machines such as are commonly employed for knittinghosiery. This has been accomplished by the use of specialinstrumentalities in some instances, and with some degree of success,but'there have never been any machines put into practical use whereinrib fabric could be knitted as in the rib top of a stocking and on dialand cylinder needles of conventional construction such as the usuallatch needles and also, wherein knitting could be continued on thecylinder needles after transferring the rib stitches from dial needlesto cylinder needles which were previously inactive. Machines of thistype must necessarily have twice as many cylinder needles as they haverib needles. The transfer herein shown is effected by specialmanipulation of the needles and needle carriers themselves and it is notnecessary to employ special instruments such as transfer points or thelike for picking oi the ribstitches and placingthem' upon the cylinderneedles.

when

The fabricaccording to this invention will be knitted as conventionalrib fabric on an equal number of dial and cylinder needles to form astocking top or welt and when such welt has been knitted for therequired extent, dial needles will cease to knit and will next beaffected by transfer cams' so-called, which will cause them to spreadtheir loops for being taken on cylinder needles prior to the knitting ofthe plain portion of the fabric.

It is preferable to knit a few courses on cylinder needles alone priorto making the transfer. After the last course of rib work we knit twocourses, preferably on all cylinder needles, but at least on thosecylinder needles which knitted in conjunction with the dial needlesthroughout the rib portion, that is, on every other cylinder needle.After these courses have been knitted, either the dial or the cylinderwill be shogged throughout a little more than the space of one or twodial needles and a cylinder needle will be brought up to take the loopfrom that dial needle. Each of the dial needles will be formed with asort of shoulder so that the loop held thereon will be extended and willbe maintained in an open position above that place in which the cylinderneedle is to be projected up for taking the same. It has beenfound thatsatisfactory results are to be obtained by this shagging movement of oneneedle although-slightly better results will be obtained by shogging twoneedles since the loop will be opened a little more so that the accuracywithin which the operation must beperformed does not have to be quite sogreat as with the single dial needle movement.

After the loop has been penetrated by one of those cylinder needleswhich has previously been out of action, or which has just been broughtup to knit the fill-in courses, the dial needles will be withdrawn. Thismovement leaves all of the cylinder needles provided with loops for thestart of knitting in plain work or in the leg of the stocking. From thispoint the dial will be out of operation and the knitting will be verysimilar to that inthe usual hosiery machine wherein cylinder needlesonly are provided and wherein these must have a rib top transferred tothem prior to starting the stocking. Tension Will be applied throughoutthe knitting of the rib top, and if necessary, may be applied throughoutthe knitting of the plain portions, however, there must be a differenceof tension for the knitting of these connected parts of the fabric. 1 '5Nowreferring to Figs. 1 and 2 one form of th invention will be describedwherein courses I, -2

and 3 have been knitted in a rib top or' welt, being knitted as one andone rib according to the usual practice. Course 4 is the last courseknitted on both the rib and cylinder needles and it is therib loops ofthis course which are to be transferred to cylinder needles for knittingthe remainder of the article as plain work. Since according to ourpractice, each rib loop is to be extended over a cylinder wale andtransferred to a cylinder needle which was in alignment with the ribneedle adjacent thatfrom which the loop isto be transferred, it will bedesirable to knit a course or two such as courses 5 and 5 on thosealternate cylinder needles which knitted in, conjunction with the dialneedles during rib work.

The knitting of these courses will allow loops 1, 8, 9, etc., to berobbed so that the loops l0, II

and i2 which are in the meantime held on the dial needle may beelongated. Of course, these loops can not be elongated as much as shownin Fig. '1 but it is to be understood that the figure is a conventionalshowingonly and distortions of the fabric can not be shown thereinalthough 7 the dial needle will be moved ahead of the cylinder needlejust enough sothat the cylinder'needle can pass up by the dial needle toremove the loops in, H and 12, as the case may be, which will beextended laterally. Each loop will be held on a shoulder or abutment onthe dial needle and its position will be determined quite accuratelytighter than the overlying plain loops in courses 4, 5 and 6 and willcause those plain loops to be. inclined in the opposite direction fromthe inclination of the transferred loops I0, I l and I2.

so that the cylinder needle may project up through it without failure.If desired the last course of rib fabric may be knitted loosely toassist in the transfer. After this cylinder needle has penetrated thedial loop the dial needle will be retracted and will leave its loop onthe cylinder needle. From this point all cylinder needles have loopsthereon and will knit plain work having therein as many wales asthererwere in the rib work. Course I5 is the first plain courseknittedafter the transfer.

In actual practice thefabric will not maintain any such theoretical formas that shown in Fig. 1

but will become distorted to look very much like what'has been shown inFig. 2. The rib part of wale l3 will tend to align with the plain partof wale it since the loops I0 etc., are shorter and The loops 1, 8 and 9will be drawn back and will almost disappear as such in the fabric. Thisresults in the elongation of loops 10, H and I2 to greatly facilitatethe transfer. Corresponding loops and courses havebeen identified bysimilar numerals in Fig. 2 to those used in Fig. 1. a 8

Now referring to Figs. 3 and 4 we will'describe a modification. of theinvention. The cylinder or the dial of the machine must be shoggedthroughout a distance of *alittle more than two dial needles to effectthis transfer and the "fabric produced will be slightly moredistortedqthan that of Figs. 1 and 2. This distortion is not'particularly objectionable in the finished product but does render thetransfer more certain and .easier prior to' knitting these courses.

of accomplishment. The fill-in courses have been knitted by use of allcylinder needles and thus a transfer section is produced which is not soopen in appearance and which should appear stronger than that of thefirst form.

In Fig. 3 courses "5, l1 and" I8 will be the last courses knitted in therib'topr Course I9'is also knitted on the dial needles in conjunctionwith alternate cylinder needles but the dial loops 20, 2 I, etc., areretained on the dial needles while courses 22 and 23 known as thefill-in courses are knitted on all cylinder needles; it will benecessary to bring up the previously inactive cylinder needles Just asin the form of the invention shown in Fig. 1, these courses 5 and 6 andHand 23 will actually comprise one-half a course more than shown sincethe cams controlling the knitting function must be' moved in on shortbutts and will first take effect on long butts. Thus the fill-in courseswill actually comprise one and one-half, two and onehalf courses, orperhaps a greater number, depending upon the particular gauge of fabricbeing knitted and as well upon other practical considerations.

With either form of the invention the fill-in courses may be knitted onalternate cylinder needles such as knitted in conjunction with the dialneedles or upon all cylinder needles. After the fill-in courses havebeen'completed, the dial or the cylinder, preferably the dial, will beshogged or angularly moved until the dial loops 1 are stretched over thespace in which cylinder needles may-rise through them whereupon, dialneedles will be retracted leaving theloops on those cylinder needleswhich have been inactive during knitting of the rib top. In this form ofthe invention, Fig. 3, these elongated dial loops willbe taken bycylinder needles which were substantially beneath dial needles removedby a space of two dial needles from the needle on which the loop' wasoriginally drawn. 7 7

Courses 24, etc., will then be knitted'in the ring top or the leg of thestocking in the usual way. The appearance of the fabric after beingdropped from the'machine is'shown in Fig. 4 wherein the elongation ofloops 20 and 2| is shown more nearly to scale and wherein the courses 22 and 23, are shown covering these transferred loops and. closing thespace except for slight openings in courses I! and I8. Theoutwardappearance of the fabric transferred in this way does not vary greatlyfromthe ordinary direct transfer commonly employed.

The fabric has beendescribed with respect to two forms of the same andcorresponding methods of producing them, but it is to be expected thatslight variations'may be resorted to by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention which is'not to be limitedexcept by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A stocking having a rib knitted'top, a plain knitted leg having thesame number of wales therein as the top, and a transfer portion betweenthe top and leg consisting of a plurality of courses of plain fabricknitted in continuation of the plain wales of the top, and elongatedloops of the last knitted rib course extending from a rib wale, behind aplain wale and into a plain wale knitted in continuation of anotherribfwale.

2. A knitted fabric having a portion thereof knitted in rib and acontinuing portion knitted of plain work, the construction being suchthat plain wales of the ribportion continue uninter rupted as wales ofthe plain portion while the last drawn loops of rib wales aretransferred behind said plain wales and continue throughout the plainportion as the intermediate wales therein.

3. A rib fabric having a portion knitted in rib, a continuing portionknitted in plain and a transfer section between the two including atleast one course knitted in continuation of those plain wales whichcharacterize the rib portion and wherein the last knitted rib loops aretransferred behind these plain wales to be continued as intermediateplain wales throughout the plain portion of the fabric.

4. A knitted fabric having therein a portion knitted of plain work and aportion knitted in rib, the plain wales of the rib portion beingcontinued as wales of the plain part and having discontinued rib walesof the rib part transferred behind and across said plain wales to startintermediate plain wales which will continue throughout the plainportion of the fabric.

5. In a knitted fabric having a portion thereof knitted as rib work, acontinuing portion knitted as plain work and a section of fabric knittedbetween the rib and plain portions, said transfer portion consisting ofa series of plain loops knitted in continuation of the plain wales ofthe fabric and extending uninterrupted down into a plain portion of thefabric and rib loopspassing behind and across plain wales to continue asplain wales of the plain part of the fabric.

6. A knitted fabric having therein a rib knitted portion and a plainknitted portion, a transfer section between the two consisting of plainloops knitted between and connecting the plain wales of the rib portionto alternate plain wales of the plain portion so that they continueuninterrupted throughout the fabric, and loops of the rib wales extendedbehind and across two of these alternate plain wales and continuing downthrough the fabric as the intermediate plain wales throughout the plainportion thereof.

7. A stocking having a rib knitted top, a plain knitted leg having thesame number of wales therein as the top, and a transfer section betweenthe top and leg comprising a plurality of courses of fabric knitted incontinuation of the plain wales of the rib top, and transferred loops ofthe courses knitted in continuation of the rib top and having as manyplain loops in each course as there are plain and rib loops in thepreceding courses, the loops transferred from rib wales, behind andacross wales of said plain courses to other plain courses knitted incontinuation of adjacent rib wales.

9. A stocking having a rib knitted top, a plain knitted leg having thesame number of Wales therein as the top, and a transfer section betweenthe two comprising a plurality of courses of plain knitted loops andtransferred loops extending from the rib wales in the rib top to plainwales in the plain portion of the fabric, said transferred loops passingbehind a plurality of wales knitted in continuation of the plain walesof the plain wales of the rib top.

10. A method of transferring from rib fabric to plain fabric having thesame number of wales, including the steps of knitting a plurality ofcourses of plain, fill-in fabric in continuation of the rib part andthereafter transferring the last drawn rib loops to wales knitted incontinuation of discontinued rib wales but not to wales knitted incontinuation of the'same rib wale from which the loop is transferred.

11. A method as defined in claim 10 wherein said rib loops aretransferred to a wale distant the space between adjacent rib wales fromthe wales in which they were knitted.

12. A method as defined in-claim 10 wherein said rib loops aretransferred to a wale distant the space between two rib wales from thosewales in which they were originally knitted.

ROBERT H. LAWSON ARTHUR N. CLOUTIER.

